On disorders which are variable, and on the practical inferences which are deducible from the character of changeableness / [Thomas Wilkinson King].

  • King, Thomas Wilkinson, 1811-1847.
Date:
1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On disorders which are variable, and on the practical inferences which are deducible from the character of changeableness / [Thomas Wilkinson King]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/14 (page 10)
    no phlegmasiae, or fevers, to which this does not apply, in some sense or degree. 5. Certain affections are subject to simple metastasis: and, again, to an alternating metastasis; as, gout, gout and phrenitis, gout in the stomach &c. I hope that many will see a consistency and use in this mode of bringing together dissimilar cases ; and that a few remarks on the preceding varieties may serve to render the intention more apparent to all. 1. The instance of a strumous joint serves to indicate directly the influence of local causes of recurrent disease; as, motion, gravitation, or ill-judged pressure. Other cases of this first kind seem to relapse by the immediate action of cold, or even heat (to the part); or even, perhaps, of an excessive stimulant action of air only: so it is with parti¬ cular kinds of ophthalmia, or asthma, perhaps. In the example of ulcers which have existed long, habit seems to explain their retrograde course: or, at least, when an old sore is partially or completely healed, the arrest of the habitual secretion must assist to explain the subsequent inflammation and renewal of discharge: and yet more pointedly, .when we compare this event with the apoplexy or internal phlegmasia that often takes its place. 2. With respect to the alternating forms of variable dis¬ ease, they manifest, I think, pretty constantly, a reparative stage before the recurrent attack or secondary affection: and when the causes of the first and subsequent disturbances are duly investigated, it will be often easy to explain why the secondary affection arises, and is renewed now and then, in preference to the primary disease. The instance of phthisis is not a very simple one. The restorative periods may be marked enough; but the frequent persevering re¬ lapses, along with the regimen, produce wasting and decline of all the functions with increased susceptibility. The digestive organs are disproportionably subject to distur¬ bance. The action of the skin is suppressed by day, and perhaps by night, or only at times encouraged; whilst for a period the lungs may be placed under unusually easy